Fish and Fisheries Author:David Herbert Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: ESSAYS. WHALE-FISHING IN THE FAROE ISLES. By H. C. Muller. This description, as far as the capture and the appearance of the Grind-whale are concerned, is... more » founded partly on the accounts of the royal income of Faroe, which are deposited in Offices in Copenhagen, and which have been kindly opened to me for investigation ; and for the rest upon my own experience. As a native of the islands I have had, from childhood, opportunities of observing this sport, which is as interesting as any sport can be. Old men hardly find a more interesting topic for conversation than the " Grindefangst." It having been my duty as " Sysselmand," from the year 1839, to frequent and rule the captures in Stromo Syssel (district of Stromo), I have consequently had excellent opportunities of investigating everything concerning the " Grindefangst;" besides that, at a younger age, I often frequented the captures on others of the islands, especially in Vaago. I have thus frequented more than a hundred captures. Although I have not studied natural history at large, I am of opinion that I have such knowledge of the " Grindefangst" that I am, in some way, entitled to make the following remarks, and to assure the public that the information I give is to be relied upon. I hope my remarks will lay a good foundation for better qualified writers or inquirers in the future. The oldest indication which 1 have observed about the appearance of the grind-whale in the Faroe Isles is afforded by an account of the collector of the King's taxes, for the year 1584, which runs as follows :— " Saint John's Day this summer, during an awful cold and snowstorm which happened in the Faroes, were, by the pro- vidence of God and wonderful occurrence, found on the shore of the Little Dimonen iiij small whales named Nyi...« less